Hello!

 It's Friday again, and what have I got to show for this week? 

I've embroidered one more block for my Licorice Allsorts quilt.  There's just one more block to embroider now, and I'll be sad when they're all finished.  

My wool felt applique class at Coastal Quilters went well last Saturday.  The ladies all came with different ideas, so it was fun to see their designs emerging.  Coastal Quilters owns a Sizzix machine so we experimented with all the templates and cut lots of different shapes.

I came home with some snow flakes that I'm sure I'll find a use for one day.

Tomorrow I'm demonstrating hand quilting at my own guild, Capital Quilters.  We're going to have 8 tutors set up around the room and members will get 10 minutes with it each tutor who will give a quick overview of a new skill.  

Last night I started sorting out what I should take along to show how effective hand quilting can be.   

Bedazzle 12"x12" 

Whole Cloth Cushion

I hope I can inspire some more people to give hand quilting a try.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Wool Felt Applique

Firstly - thank you for all the answers to the question I posed last week.  How do you follow blogs in 2022?  I haven't had time to digest all the answers yet, but I will.  

This week I've been busy finishing up this piece so I can take it to Coastal Quilters tomorrow.  

It's something that I started when I came back from Dunedin all inspired by the local's use of woollen fabrics.  The maroons in the centre are from a small bundle of Sue Spargo woollen fabrics, and the borders on the side are flannel that I purchased from Fox's Cottage in Foxton, New Zealand.  

I got radical and chopped up a scarf for the back!! I've never tried anything like this before, but someone at Taupo Quiltmakers guild meeting had chopped up some scarves to make a quilt for a friend, and I thought, "Why not!". The colours work so well with the front of this mini quilt.  

In another first I used my new pounce pad and a stencil to transfer this cable design on to the flannel, and then I hand quilted it with chunky stitches to match the overall rustic feel of this piece.  

I'm really pleased with how it's all turned out.  I'm still painfully slow at developing my own designs, but I just let this piece grow slowly and I'm pleased with how it's ended up.  I suspect it's only finished because I have to take it to a quilt guild tomorrow, but sometimes we need a bit of pressure to get things finished.  

I LOVE that green velvet for the vase, and the pretty pink flower and Kaffe Fassett ribbons.  

This piece is 22' x 22".  I'm not sure if it's a wall hanging, a table mat, or just a teaching sample.  I guess it can be all three things at the moment.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Licorice Allsorts

I must have been living under a rock because I didn't realise that Bloglovin is dead! I still get my daily emails updating me on new posts from blogs that I follow, but I didn't realise that everything is frozen in time and we can't select new blogs to follow.  

Follow by email seems to have gone the same way.  So how do you keep up with blogs that you follow? Or do you just keep checking back until there's a new post to read? 

Anyway, on a brighter note, I've finished another two blocks for my Licorice Allsorts quilt designed by Wendy Williams from Australia.

You can probably tell that I'm loving this! Hand stitching and bright colours - it's just my thing.  Here's the previous four months:

There's only three months of hand embroidery to complete and then I need to piece all the other blocks on the sewing machine.  I'm looking forward to that stage too because the blocks are quite different to any I've made before.  

But first I need to get through my work conference in Christchurch today.  Once that's over I'll deserve a break and will be straight into my quilting again. I've missed it.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Joy to the World

This week I've been working on another Christmas tree decoration designed by Liz Matthews.  

It doesn't look very exciting in this photo, but I'm stitching it on white sparkly 32 count evenweave and I'm really pleased with it.  

I think it will look nice next to my first tree that I stitched back in January.  You can read about that one here.

Next Friday I'll be in Christchurch at my work conference.  I'm really looking forward to regaining some work life balance after the conference.  There's been too much work lately and not enough quilting! I have big plans for the rest of 2022. 

My daphne plant that smells gorgeous right now

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Quilt Symposium 2022

I haven't had a lot of time for quilting lately.  I've been busy organising my work conference, learning a new system for cricket registrations, and managing the communications for the Quilt Symposium 2022.  

The quilters in New Zealand get together every two or three years for a Quilt Symposium.  This time Capital Quilters are hosting the Symposium in Lower Hutt.  We've been busy booking tutors, setting up the rules the exhibition and arranging social functions.  You can read all about it here on our website:

https://www.quiltsymposium2022.co.nz/

Everyone admires our Block of the Month programme at Capital Quilters, so we decided to run Block of Symposium.  I've made 6 bears paw blocks and they are my entries into the draws.  We're hoping to get lots of blocks and will give away sets of blocks to lucky entrants.  

If you're in the Wellington region between 5-9 October I really encourage you to come and see the exhibitions at the Lower Hutt Events Centre (where Capital Quilters' exhibition was held in 2020 and 2018) and the Hutt Arts Society - just a short walk away.  I'll let you in on a secret - one of my new quilts has been accepted in to the exhibition!

There's also going to be a fantastic Merchants Mall at Sacred Heart College.  Anyone can visit the Merchants Mall - you don't need to be registered for Symposium.  

So start making plans now if you're a kiwi quilter.  We also have info about transport, parking and accommodation on our website.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Mill Hill Santa

This week I started to think about the #12in22ornamentstitchalong again.  And wondered how many ornaments I made before I fell off the wagon! I think it might have only been three - which is pretty poor really, but to regain that sense of achievement that I love, I pulled out my Juniper Santa who has been in my travel bag for a few months now.  

I really do enjoy stitching these decorations.  Everything is in the kit - even the needles, and they don't take long at all.  I think this one has only taken me a week, with other things in between of course.  

I just need to cut this Santa out carefully now and glue some felt on the back.  then he'll be all ready to join his friends on my bookcase this Christmas.  

Given how easy and delightful this Santa was to make, I might just even fit in a couple more over coming weeks.  I do have a stash of Prairie Schooler Santas to make too now, but I just love these cute Mill Hill Santas too. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Have you been thinking about Christmas decorations this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Spooky Darlings

Well, last weekend didn't go according to plan and I didn't make it to Christchurch after all.  I was caught up in Air New Zealand's worst weekend of 2022.  It was the start of the school holidays, the All Blacks were playing Ireland in Dunedin (so a lot of people were travelling), the weather was awful in parts of NZ, and the second wave of COVID-19 is affecting airline staffing levels. 

My Friday morning flight was cancelled, and then my Saturday afternoon flight was cancelled too!   The next available flight down was on Tuesday.  So, I had to stay at home.

However, I did finish my Spooky Darlings quilt top and I took it in for basting yesterday.   I intend to hand quilt it with a spider web design which will be a new challenge for me.  

I made these triangles as wide as I could with the fat eighth bundle I had purchased.  My original plan was to jumble them all up, but then my eyes kept searching for the partner triangles, so I just let them naturally return to their partners.  I've kept this design really simple because I want the hand quilting to shine.  

The fabric is Spooky Darling by Ruby Star Society.  I was never a huge Cotton + Steel fan, but I do like some of the Ruby Star Society fabrics.  They use interesting colour combinations.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter